Tempt Me - By Shiloh Walker Page 0,25

end up trying to crawl all over him in the damn car—with her luck, somebody would see them and word would get all over. She’d never live it down.

Even with the snow, Cole made it in good time, although it took longer than four minutes. Close to six, she decided. Six long minutes. The entire six minutes, she was reliving that kiss, the way he’d looked at her, the way her skin buzzed when he touched her. Her body was all but vibrating with arousal by the time his car came to a halt.

She opened her eyes, but the soft, golden glow of lights distracted her before she could look over at him. She did a double-take. “Ah...you live here?”

“For the time being.”

She stared. He lived at the Centre. It was like...well, hell, the rich lived there. The young rich, generally. Once upon a time, she’d daydreamed about having the money to live someplace that nice. But that had been before reality and life had intruded. Still ...

She couldn’t help but stare as a uniformed doorman came out to open the door for her. Oooo-kay.

As he came around to join her, she slid him a narrow look. Cole Stanton was seriously loaded. Nerves hit her then, hard and fast. His hand came up and touched her back. “You okay?”

She swallowed. Wondered if she should back out of this ...

No—

“I’m fine.”

Something had made her nervous. The way her eyes had tightened, gotten darker, the way she’d nervously glanced at him and Billy as he’d opened the door for her, all of it. Cole suspected he even knew what it was—some women just loved the fact that he had money. Some didn’t care. Others…well, it made them uncomfortable. He wasn’t going to worry about it now.

Not now, because it didn’t matter.

They mattered. Everything else was small stuff as far as he was concerned.

He tossed his keys to Billy without another word. If they lingered too long, she might change her mind again. Damn it, he’d died of perpetual horniness if that happened. He didn’t think he’d been stuck in this state since high school.

It took sixty seconds to get her inside the elevator—the ride up to his floor would take another sixty. As the door closed behind them, he came up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders, staring at her in the gold, mirrored reflection along the back wall of the small box lifting them higher and higher. “You ever made love in an elevator?”

Rocki stared at him for a split second and then she started to laugh. “No. Ah...no. Nor do I intend to.”

“Why not?” He slid his hands down a little lower, letting his fingers tease the very edge where her corset stopped, dipping inside. She shivered.

“Ah...elevators are public.”

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to her shoulder. “This one isn’t.”

She tensed. “You’re serious?”

“Nah.” He shrugged. The door opened behind him and he stepped back, waited for her to turn. “Shall we?”

“Oh, yes ...”

As the door closed behind her, Rocki told herself, Don’t think. Relax. Don’t think. Relax…

Except she couldn’t stop thinking. She couldn’t relax. She hadn’t expected this…elegance. Or the obvious wealth that surrounded her. She’d grown up strictly middle class and this was…well, kind of unsettling. But not unsettling enough, because even as uncomfortable as she was, she couldn’t stop thinking about Cole.

Couldn’t stop thinking about how damn beautiful he was…that rumpled silk hair and those whiskey-gold eyes, about how he made her heart do the damnedest little flutter when he looked at her, his mouth quirking up at the corners.

But then he touched her. Breath lodged in her lungs and thought…stopped. It just stopped.

As he lowered his head, Rocki stared at him. Panic exploded through her. She licked her lips, tried to make herself breathe, at least one breath, before he kissed her so she didn’t pass out.

He didn’t kiss her mouth, though.

His lips came down on her shoulder, brushed against the skin left bare there, coming up against the strap of her corset where it hooked to the sleeve. “The way you smell,” he muttered. “It drives me nuts.”

Turning her face toward him, she breathed him in. “Hmm. I could say the same thing about you.” She couldn’t even define what it was about him...just musky. Male. She could smell whatever shampoo he used—it smelled expensive, she decided, but understated and subtle. Made sense, considering the lay of the land, she mused. The same for the aftershave. She rubbed her cheek against